Stacking The Shelves is a weekly event hosted by Tynga’s Reviews that shares the books (both physical and virtual) that you recently purchased, borrowed from a fellow reader or the library, won from a giveaway, or received as gifts. Stacking The Shelves will post on Saturdays as new books are added to my shelves.
This is getting a little embarrassing. I’ve seen other bloggers post their Stacking The Shelves hauls more frequently than I post mine, but since I don’t seem to read as quickly as other people do, I feel like I shouldn’t buy more books for a while. But I went ahead and bought two more. *blushes*
Anyways, these novels might look familiar, since they were both featured in past Waiting on Wednesday posts. I’ve also decided to share my “reading plan” for the rest of 2015, so you can get an idea of what to expect review-wise in the coming months. But first, the new books!
New March Releases
Rebel Queen by Michelle Moran (Historical Fiction): I finished Rebel Queen on Monday, so expect a review for it soon. If I had to summarize, though, the book started off beautifully – and then the last 100 pages were a huge disappointment. 😦
Shadow Scale by Rachel Hartman (YA Fantasy): Yay for Seraphina’s next adventure! I’ve been looking forward to this one since reading Seraphina last November. I’m about a quarter of the way through Shadow Scale now, and so far it’s really good. But holy dragons, it’s a BEAST of a YA fantasy – almost 600 pages!
Reading Plan for the Rest of 2015
This isn’t so much a plan as it is a list of reading priorities. However, I’m hoping that by making this list, I’ll comb through my bookshelves in a manageable, logical way and maybe feel less overwhelmed by what I still have and want to read:
- Allegiant (Divergent Trilogy, Book #3) by Veronica Roth: I waited to read Insurgent (Book #2) until I watched the movie “Divergent” last year. It was a good idea; the film refreshed my memory about the plot and characters, so I comfortably slid back into Tris and Tobias’ world when I picked up Insurgent. Now I’m going to do the same with “Insurgent” the film and Allegiant the book. And yes, I already know what happens at the end of Allegiant, but I have to give this series finale a shot.
- A Dance With Dragons (A Song of Fire and Ice, Book #5) by George R.R. Martin: Another good reading decision I made last year was to follow A Feast For Crows (Book #4) in tandem with Season 5 of the “Game Of Thrones” TV show. Since I was able to renegotiate HBO into my cable TV package at a decent price, I can watch Season 6 of the show while reading A Dance With Dragons. That should be a “Yay!”, right? Well, for some reason, I’m kind of dreading ADwD… probably because long books take me FOREVER to read.
- Books coming out in 2015: I want to stay on top of new releases this year. So, each time a book I’ve been waiting for comes out, I’m going to try to read it as soon as I can.
- Fairy novels: Remember when I asked for recommendations for fairy novels as part of a “market research” project for my novel The Keeper’s Curse? Well, if I’m hoping to bring the book to Query-Land next year, I should probably catch up on my “market research” sooner rather than later. I’m going to alternate between fairy novels and the 2015 releases, so reviews for those should start popping up by late spring / early summer. Which means I’ll have to buy more, since The Iron King was the only fairy novel I owned before I created this reading plan… Oops.
- “Leftovers”: Once I take care of #1 through #4, I’ll start catching up with previously published fantasies and other books I haven’t read yet.
What books did you recently buy or acquire? Have you read Shadow Scale or Rebel Queen yet? Also, what do you think of my reading plan for 2015? Feel free to share your opinions and most recent hauls by commenting below.
Sara Letourneau 
Hi Sara, speaking of fairy novels (love your idea to do market research for your own WIP), have you read or heard of Kiki Hamilton’s The Faerie Ring series? It takes place in Victorian London; it’s a really fun historical fiction/fantasy read. I believe there’s 4 books in the series, I still need to read the most recent one…also I just read The Falconer by Elizabeth May; loved the setting in 1840s Edinburgh, it was a little slow, but overall had some good things going for it, definitely another one worth taking a look at. Also a sort of guilty pleasure series is Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning, an adult contemporary series that takes place in Dublin. I obviously have a thing for fairy novels set in or near the Uk, hehe…
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Hi Kat! Thanks for your recommendations. “The Falconer” is on my list; I’ve already got five books picked out that I’m going to get soon for “market research,” and that’s one of them. I’ve heard of “Darkfever” but not of “The Fairie Ring.” Will have to look into those. Thanks! 🙂
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Yay for Shadow Scale! You’ll probably beat me to reading it 😀
And I was very curious about Rebel Queen, I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve ever read by Michelle Moran.
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LOL! I’m hoping to finish Shadow Scale by next Friday, so we’ll see. When you do you think you’ll get to it?
Yeah… I haven’t had a chance to write the review for Rebel Queen yet. I have no idea what rating to give it yet.
What other books by Michelle Moran have you read? I have The Heretic Queen and Cleopatra’s Daughter and enjoyed them both. Been meaning to get to her novel about Nefertiti, too.
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Rebel Queen sounds interesting! Enjoy
Come and check out OUaT’s STS and our 16 Blogoverary Giveaways!
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Thanks! Will do. 😉
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Haha we don’t need to finish books before we buy more books. Where the fun in that? I look forward to seeing your review of Rebel Queen 🙂
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Awesome stack this week! Check out my STS? http://bundles-of-books.blogspot.com/2015/03/stacking-shelves-7.html
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Thanks, Samantha! I’ll take a look at yours shortly. 🙂
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The Seraphina series sounds interesting, as I do like dragons, so I might give it a go adding it to my ever-growing list 🙂
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Yes yes yes! You should do that, Elizabeth. I liked Seraphina a lot – but I’m absolutely adoring Shadow Scale. I don’t want to say more than that right now… but I can’t remember the last time I loved a second book more than the first, and by this much. 😀
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Sweet! Then it’s going on my TBR list! 😀
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I haven’t read ‘Shadow Scale’ or ‘Rebel Queen’ yet… I’m a tad bogged down as it happens. Best of luck with the George R.R. Martin. I couldn’t get through it, as too many characters I really liked died off – though I think he’s an awesome writer and LOVED his ‘Fevre Dream’ novella. I’d love to know what you think when you’ve finished them… And I think it’s a very smart move to read as many books in your genre as possible. Let us know how you get on with them.
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Oh, Sarah, you really need to make time for “Seraphina”! And then “Shadow Scale”! Especially because “Shadow Scale” is wonderful, and the rare case where the sequel is actually better than the first book. 😀 Both are YA fantasy novels about a girl who’s half-human, half-dragon. What do you think?
I will definitely review “A Dance With Dragons” when I finish it, as I have with the other Martin novels I’ve read. What’s “Fevre Dream” about? I haven’t heard of that one before.
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Right! I’m DEFINITELY adding it to my TBR list, then! It sounds really interesting – and I’ve also got a friend who is considering writing a book featuring a dragon-girl, so it would also be solid research.
Fevre Dream is a novella by George R.R. Martin about a river boat captain – and it’s stunningly good. Get hold of it if you can…
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I’ll have to look into Fevre Dream then. And if you’re interested, I should have a review of Shadow Scale posted in the next couple weeks. But definitely read Seraphina first, because Shadow Scale won’t make sense if you go backwards. 😉
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I’ve just bought Seraphina, but I’ve got one or three books on my TBR list before I can get to it…:)
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